Purchased a 2000 Ranger 4x2 for my teenager, first car! Lots of miles 200k+, therefore lots of things need fixin'! First question, parking brake pedal goes all the way to the floor when depressed & barely holds (need to leave it in gear) how do I address this? Did an oil change, radiator flush, tranny gear oil & differential fluid replacement. What else do I need to be concerned with? What about the timing belt? What's the recommended replacement mileage? Spark plug replacement, how often? Let's start with these items & go from there, any help/direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Sal

 

Hoping you used ATF in your transmission and not gear oil. The manual transmission in your Ranger uses Mercon ATF

Would be a good idea to flush the brake fluid

 

Looked on your profile page and it says it's a 3 litre, so no timing belt involved, just a single chain with no tensioner to worry about.
They are expected to last 300,000 miles.

Very reliable engine, but they tend to leak coolant where the aluminum timing cover bolts onto the block.
The pan gaskets also leak oil which requires the removal of the engine to deal with.

When driving take the rpm's up to at least 3800 when going through the gears if you want some horse power when getting up to speed, don't lug it.
It's a high revving engine, it's designed for it.

 

Thanks for the info, it was the ATF, I'm used to saying gear oil from many years of driving performance sports cars! Will have the brake fluid flushed.
Any thoughts on the parking brake pedal needing to be pushed all the way to the floor?

 

Thanks Jeff, Any thoughts on the parking brake pedal needing to be pushed all the way to the floor?
Sal

 

I don't know if there is an adjustment on the parking brake cable itself. Recently had to replace one of the cables because it had rusted and seized. I didn't see any place to adjust the cable, and had to grunt to get enough play in it to install the new cable (it was the one from about mid-frame to the passenger side. The spring tension comes from the pedal housing under the dash.

Have you been able to pull the hubs and see how they look inside? It is possible the shoes are worn down to the point they simply aren't doing much, and you wouldn't even notice that during normal braking. Mine is a 2001. I assume your's also has the auto adjust feature that when you back up and brake it is supposed to adjust the shoes. If you pull the drum, you should be able to tell if the adjusters are still working. My rear brakes were so rusted and corroded I had trouble getting the drums off and some of the hardware actually fell apart during the process. But it braked in a straight line and seemed to be normal. The adjuster wheels might well be rusted or frozen and no longer working.

Let us know how you make out.

 

Most common problem as said above, but being in California (assuming truck was there all it's life) probably not a rust problem.
Removing the drums will tell you a lot.

If the parking brake was never used by the previous owner, the ratcheting device inside the drums, will not take up any slack in the cable(s).
Using the emergency brake automatically turns the adjusting barrel to move the shoes out as they wear, so in theory, continuously activating the brake will cure the problem.
That's assuming everything is healthy inside the drum.

There will be an elongated hole on the back brake mounting plate with a rubber plug in it below the axle on each end.
There is a special tool to turn the adjusting barrel out to take up the slack, but don't start turning the barrel until you've inspected things.
Turning the barrel out may cause the drums not to com off and sometimes the barrel can't be turned because it's seized.

Go to about the 14.00 minute mark, but the whole video is pretty informative.
I don't agree with what he says about the adjuster automatically taking up the slack when the brakes are applied, the E-Brake has to be used for that to happen.

 

Pull and hold the parking brake release, and pumping the parking brake pedal will also adjust the rear brakes.

 

I defer to Jeff above. For some reason I thought the brakes also adjusted when backing up. I'm sure he is correct. And the tip to pump the parking brake makes sense.

Hopefully all you need is to give them some adjustment.